Not sure why, but lately nothing has been quite as good to listen to as the music of Rimsky-Korsakov. It puts me in a good mood, and at work it’s making me more productive. Maybe it’s the energy and the brightness, helping me out when I feel tired or blah.
Rimsky-Korsakov: Great Orchestral Works
Right now I’m trying out a viola made in 1978 by David Wiebe. It’s about 16 3/4″, so not quite as large as the Michele Ashley instrument I was trying before. What a powerful set of lower strings this instrument has! I think it’s even boomier than the Marilyn Wallin viola I […]
I think tonight may have been a first for me. I just got back from playing in a house concert featuring a couple of singer-songwriters. Both women had very nice voices (and guitar skills).
Some songs were voice and guitar only, some had bass and drums, and some had viola (me) and cello.
They kept […]
Right now I have four violas in my house: mine, a big 17-incher made by Michele Ashley and two made by Douglas Cox (one 16 5/8″, the other 16 7/8″).
This whole viola-buying business is so hard. I’ve tried many very nice instruments, but it’s hard to remember the sound of them all over the […]
This is shaping up to be my season for attending concerts.
Tonight I caught the second half of NEC’s First Monday concert (they were playing Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, which I’ve played twice now). It’s so nice to be able to hop in the car, zip down Soldier’s Field Road/Storrow Drive and then on to […]
I now have a new site dedicated to stringed instruments: Perfect Fifths. Of course, I’ll still talk about classical music stuff here, especially when it’s more on a personal level. Perfect Fifths is an experiment in creating a more focused, topic-driven website. It will have rehearsal tips, reviews of accessories, and other […]